100 unique pieces

This is the result of my 2020 Make 100 kickstarter campaign. See below for the complete description of the project.

Delicate ring

Small pendant

Bracelets with a chain

Small pins

Small earrings

“Upgraded” ring

“Deluxe” pendants

Rigid/bangle bracelet

Alternate pins

"Noticable" earrings

Make 100

As a first participation into the Make 100 event on Kickstarter, I will make 100 jewellery pieces for less than 100$. In addition I’m throwing in a hundred thank you.

All jewellery pieces will be one of a kind and designed especially for this campaign. It will all be made of sterling silver. The goal behind this is to boost my creativity. All this because last spring, I celebrated my 10th professional anniversary. I also made a few realizations about this 10th anniversary that I shared on my blog in June. Written originally in french, if you’re interested to read it, I translated it for you to the right. For those who want the short version, here is the bullet point version :

• I am far from where I dreamt to be 10 year after going out of school. 
• In 2018-2019, I created only one new original jewellery piece that was not a request from a customer. Creating for a customer is still creation, but it is a bit less fulfilling as it becomes a negotiation between my creation and the customer's taste. 
• My creativity has been threatened by my daily worries and chores. 

In 2019-2020, I wanted to attend to these issues. To make sure of it, I challenged myself in posting a daily picture of something creative for a year. I allowed myself to skip and double sometimes to cut myself some slack and keep my sanity throughout this entire year. I was behind for the last couple months, but I am now up to date and on the first day of this campaign, I'm posting on Instagram the 200th picture. For this campaign, I want to merge that challenge with a new one you will, hopefully, help me fulfill. So today, it is a picture of the first jewellery piece of a hundred I'll make for this campaign and I'll go on for the next 99 days posting pictures of the project, either a finished jewellery or one still in process. You will be able to follow me in this campaign and beyond as I will also post it in daily updates here on kickstarter with extra comments.

I will also add pictures of each pieces below with complete description.

Example of cards

If you want to go to the kickstarter page
clic on the image above

10 Years - blog translation

This post has originally been post June 14 2019 in french, here is the original : http://www.quercusalba.ca/blog/10-ans.html

This month, I’m celebrating my 10th year anniversary of being a professional jeweller. Already 10 years that I’ve finished at Cégep de Limoilou and Québec Jewellery School, with my diploma in hand and a head full of dreams.

One of those dreams burn brighter : make a living out of my art.

10 year later, what happened to those dreams ?

I would have loved to write that I am a well known jeweller with tons of cash… But reality is far from that. Yes, I put that decade to good use : developing my collections. Yes, I sell jewellery almost everywhere in the world through the internet. Yes, I found my talent and style and I have a solid experience giving me the key to manage my business and have it grow slowly year after year. Those are achievements and successes I am proud of.

But the illumination never came. I never found that innovation that would launch my professional career and be my step toward making a living out of my passion. I have to face the fact, my life is not a Hollywood movie with a fantastic success story ending.

The last 10 years has been spent juggling with my passion, my time, my contracts, my bills, my dreams and my obligations.

I choose the sure way, the long one, where I worked 40hrs/week in an office. A job that I like, but far from creative. That work has enabled me to buy a house, a place to call my own and shelter my love and my art. Maybe have a family. And that is a beautiful success. I am far from failing !

But security has a price. I spent so much time working for it that I feel like I'm losing my creativity and most importantly the pleasure I once took in making jewellery.

That is why, to celebrate my 10 years career and to counter this erosion of my creativity, I challenge myself : for a year, 365 days, from Saturday June 15, I will post on my Instagram and my professional Facebook page (links are below) a picture of something about my creativity : a drawing, a painting (my new passion), a jewellery - done or in progress, a picture I took of something that caught my eye, in short a small piece of myself. The goal is that in my daily routine I can find again that urge to create and to take time each day to see the beautiful in this world and in the process to make something as an artist. 

Will I succeed ? This a big challenge ! I am already allowing myself the right to transgress those rules.

Let's see were those 365 days will take me. I hope you will take pleasure to travel along and  discover the path with me. Set a course for adventure!

Creative Process

There is a lot of techniques that can be used to make jewellery. They usually fall under 2 categories : casting and metalworking.

Casting regroup wax carving, molding and consumable items. You would be surprised how much unusual things can end up in a jewellery piece.  I work a lot with these techniques, wax carving being my favourite. If you want to see a bit more of this technique, you can look my small slideshow here.
Metalworking involves, as the name suggests, working directly with the metal : cutting, forming, soldering and such. In this there is also much to play with in this category.
Both techniques have pros and cons and usually there are things easier to do with one or the other. They can also be used together to complement each other and it is what I intend to do with this project.
To be able to make 100 one-of-a-kind jewellery for less than 100$ each I will need to use all of it and let my creativity run wild. See below for some of the basics pieces I will use for this challenge. They are pieces I collected and chose to start this project, I might add more along the way. And I am thinking of adding words too as I got some punched letters I wish to use.As you can see, I gathered tools as well as raw material like wax in a multitude of shapes and properties (each color have their own) and metal also in different shapes : square and round wire, sheet or shank. I also gathered pieces and bits that I set aside over time, interesting enough to be part of a project but not yet imagined like water cast metal, leftover texture, test and trials. Finally, I added items (wax or already cast) I moulded because parts can be used to make something unique. With all of this, I should be able to make unique art pieces that respects the time frame and, in doing so, the price.
This will be fun !